St. Landry democrat., 1887-04-09

pose you will not have anything to do
with us now. Suppose you are praying
now. Get down on your knees and let us
hear you pray Come, now, give US
touch. viii not do it, Ell: Pretty
Christian You are" y
| Is 1t not the fear of being laughed at
| that keeps you out of the kingdom of God.
Which of these scorners will help you at
the last! When you lie down on a dying
pillow which of them will be there: In
the day Of eternity will they bail you out!
My friends and neighbors, come in right
away. Come IN through Christ, the wide
door-the door that swings out toward
you. Come in and be saved. Come IN and
be happy.
| The spirit and the bride say, come
| Room in the ark! Room III the ark!
But do not come alone. The text invites
you to bring your family.
Come thou and all thy house.
That means your wife and your chill
dren. You can not drive them i'll. II
Noah had tried to drive the pigeons and
the doves into the ark he would only have
scattered them Some parents are not
wise about these things. They make iron
rules about Sab baths, and they force the
| catechism down the throat as they would
! hold the child's nose and force down a
| dose of rhubarb or calomel. You can not
drive your children into the ark. You can
draw your children to Christ, but you can
! not coerce them. The cross was lifted not
to drive, but to draw.
| If be lifted up, will draw all men unto me,
| AS the sun draws up the drops of morn
ing dew, so the sun of righteousness ex-
| hales the tears of repentance.
! Come thou and all thy house into the ark.
Come in, and bring your wife or your
husband with you-not by fretting about
religion, or ding donging them about re-
ligion, but by consistent life and by
compelling prayer that shall bring the
throne of God down into your bedroom.
Better live in the smallest house in
the city and get INTO heaven than live
| fifty years in the finest house in the
land and wake up at last and find that
one Of you, for all eternity, is outside the
ark. Go home tonight, lock the door
of your room, take up the Bible and
read it together, and then kneel down
! and commend your souls to Him who has
watched you all these years; and before
| you rise there will be futtering of
wings over your head, angel crying to an
gel:
'Behold, they prayr
But this does not include all your fam
lily. Bring the children, too. God bless
the dear children! What would our homes
be without them! We may have done
much for them. They may have done
more for US. What a salve for wound
ed heart there is in the soft palm of
child's hand! Did harp or flute ever have
such music as there is in a child's "Good
| night!' From our coarse, rough life, the
! angels of God are often driven back, but
| H. 1,,f~
| feeling that angels are lowering
| around? They who die in in
fancy go into glory, but you are
| world, Is it not question, then, that
| rings through all the corridors, and wind
ings, and heights and depths of your soul,
| what is to become of your sons and
daughters for time and eternity9
''Or' you say. ''Imean to see that they
have good manners"
Very well.
II mean to dress them we'll, if I have
myself to go shabby
Very good.
II shall give them an education, and I
shall leave them fortune"
every well. But is that all? Don't you
mean to take them into the arka Don't
you know that the storm is coming, and
that out of Christ there is no safetya no
pardon? no hope! no Heavena
How to get them in! Go in yourself. If
Noah had stayed out do you not suppose
that his sons, Shem, Ham and Japhet,
would have stayed out9 Your sons and
daughters will be apt to do just as you do.
Reject Christ yourself and the probability
is that your children will reject him.
"Where is George, or Henry, or Frank,
eious souls whose interests I committed
into your handss"
A dying son said to his father:
'Father, you gave me an education, and
good manners, and every thing that the
world could do for me; but, father, you
never told me how to die and now my soul
is going out in the darkness"
In st. Paurs, London, there is whis-
pering gallery. A voice uttered most
feebly at one side of the gallery is heard
distinctly at the opposite side, a great dis
lance off. So, every word of earnest
prayer goes all around the earth, and
makes Heaven whispering gallery. Go
into the ark-not to sit down, but to stand
in the door, and call until all the family
come in. Aged Noah, where is Japhet!
David, where is Absalomg Hannah, where
is Samuels Bring them in through
Christ, the door. Would it not be pleas
ant to spend eternity with our families?
Gladder than Christmas or Thanksgiving
festival will be the reunion. if we get all
our family into the ark. Which of them
can we spare out of heaven?
On one of the late steamers there were
father and two daughters journeying.
They seemed extremely poor. A benevo-
lent gentleman stepped up to the poor
man to proffer some form of relief, and
said:
'You seem to be very poor, sir.''
"Poor, SIR" replied the man, "if there's
poorer man than me a troubling the
world, God pity both of us p
II will take one of your children and
adopt it if you say so. think it would be
a great relief to you.'